The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selectors have opted for a second-string India squad for their tour of Zimbabwe. They have recalled a number of players who featured in the past for India, but could not retain their place because of the current fancy pack of players.
The selectors have rested the major players for this tour citing fatigue as the reason and that is not a small list. Big guns including MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Umesh Yadav will not board the flight to Zimbabwe. Instead they have opted for Robin Uthappa and some young faces.
Uthappa is happy to be back in the ODI squad of India, but he is not sure about the position he would bat in and stated that opening the innings would help him.
"Opening the batting comes extremely easily to me because that's what I do in domestic cricket. I am not really sure what position I will be batting in this series. If it is up the order, it would just be about going out there and playing my natural game," Uthappa said.
His international career has seen a lot of highs and lows. He had last donned the India ODI jersey back in 2014 against Sri Lanka. Surprisingly, he has been consistent throughout the domestic season and has managed to score a lot of runs. And once again there is an opportunity that lies ahead of him and the player would look to come out with flying colours.
"I am very grateful for this opportunity and glad that it has come my way. It is something that I was working for and looking forward to for some time. I look at this as a good opportunity for myself and would love to make the most of it and hopefully everything will go as planned and I would come out with flying colours," Uthappa said.
Being one of the experienced campaigners in the second-string Indian squad, he would be boosting the morale of the rest from behind the stumps.
"Depending on where I will be batting in the line-up, my role is going to change. But behind the wickets definitely it would be to support and make sure that I keep everyone on their toes and up and about. Everyone is more or less the same age and we will definitely be looking to help each other out with our own experiences," he added.
